Love in Pictures
by Coco6
Summary: Why do these terrible things happen to me? The life of an unfortunate girl who comes to learn many things about life.


"Yesterday, I ran away from my grandparents. My brother and I just jumped in the car and left after we were asked not to attend my grandmother's funeral and would we like a Sprite? Neither of us said anything and neither of us had any idea where we were going, but we sure as heck got on the road and got away from that awful place. Somewhere near Dillon we were lost and we knew it. We were running low on gas, but that was no surprise because we were running low on energy as well. We had experienced virtually every human emotion between the time we left and the time we finally pulled over to get gas. Above all, we were happy to be away from those terrible people. Later on, we finally met up with Mom and Dad halfway home; they got in their cars to come meet us. We knew we couldn't drive all the way home in our current emotional state. They held us tight and told us that we were away from those people and would you like us to get you anything? I slept and vomited in the back seat, thinking I would never stop. My brother stared seriously out at the road in front of us as Mom drove us to our safe, sweet home. I looked back at Dad's car. Bless their hearts. They're such good people. All I could think about was the day that was thankfully behind me. I knew that if it had gotten any worse, my brother and I probably wouldn't be all in one piece to drive home. All I could think about were the looks on my grandparents' faces when my brother stood up for us. All I could think about was that I hoped I would never see them again." I was telling all of this to my mom's wonderful therapist. My mom had offered my brother and me her appointment to share with her the Monday after that terrible day. It was June: hot and overcast. Even the weather couldn't quite get worse. Jacky, the therapist, listened and gave me advice. They are cowards and they couldn't hurt me if they tried. We were strong. I smiled. My brother and I sure didn't look strong after that day. What I really couldn't believe was my wonderful brother. The afternoon of that awful day, after I realized that I really could not take anymore of my grandparents, I let my brother know how I felt and we escaped into our car and road for about an hour to think about what to do. My brother knew exactly what to do. He even knew how they would react to what we would say. "We have to go into the mall. We can't tell them we sat in the car and talked about how much we hate them. So we have to go in the mall, so it is actually true that we did something besides talk about how much we hate them." I looked at my brother, amazingly. "So what are you going to say when they ask what we did?" He was testing me. I looked up. "No! You cannot look up. That way, they'll know you are lying." "Can I wear my sunglasses so they won't be able to tell?" "No! Then, they'll know you're trying to hide something." We got out of the car and walked around the mall, aimlessly. I did wear sunglasses there, to cover up my tears of fear. After doing that for about five minutes, we realized that we had to squinch up our noses and face the inevitable. We got back into the car and bravely headed back down the road to what we knew would be coming. I was scared out of my pants. But I knew that I had to get away from those people. There was no other option. I was not going to put up with four more horrible days at the beach with these grandparents. I breathed in and out. I looked over at my brother. Not a muscle on his face moved. My brother and I got out of the car and nervously walked up the stairs and into the beach house. I didn't want to look at anything in that front room. I wanted to turn around and run back out the door and not have to deal with this. "So, what did ya'll do?" asked my manipulating grandmother. "We went to the mall and walked around some." I didn't look up or down and my sunglasses were off. I looked into her eyes, casually, as if what I was saying didn't really require rehearsal. My brother had said that I was to be the one to bring up the fact that I didn't want to stay with them any longer, but I couldn't do it and I didn't. Both of my grandparents were in the front room with the T.V. on. I wasn't going to say it. My brother and I stared blankly at the television screen, trying to hide every thought that had entered our minds between then and two and a half hours earlier. Finally, my brother spoke up. He will never know how thankful I was for that. "Hey, we don't feel like we should stay here any longer.we'd like to just go ahead and leave." Thank goodness he didn't use my name in that sentence. My grandparents eyed us like we were some weird kind of termite. "We've been talking about ya'll, too." I can't believe my grandmother would say a stupid thing like that. My brother did most of the talking, bless his heart, while I sat looking at my brother, my grandmother, and my grandfather, back and forth, nervously. "Now let's be honest, here. Isn't that a good thing? To be honest?" My brother and I looked at her and agreed as if we actually liked her. I admired my brother's incredible acting skills. I wondered if mine were alright. "Now. Why weren't we invited to your graduation, Cal?" My brother froze up. He hadn't invited them because he didn't want to, you dummies. They had emotionally abused my parents nine months earlier, and they think he's just going to invite them to his graduation like not a thing had happened? "Well, there were some things going on, and...." "Your parents told you not to invite us, didn't they?" She was like a snake. She was acting just like a manipulative, sneaky little snake. By this time she was getting in Cal's face. Then, my grandfather entered the scene. "We have offered you children so much. We have done so much for ya'll, and my own grandson doesn't invite me to his graduation." I made an attempt to escape the situation, but my grandmother sat down just in time to grab the back of my shirt and force me back down. "I have to go to the bathroom," I lied. "You're not going anywhere." Then, the heat began to rise. They began accusing and yelling and hissing at Cal about the graduation. Cal tried to reply, and he tried to stand up for himself. "How dare you talk back to me!" My grandmother was clearly in a rage by now. My grandfather tried to take control of this. "One more peep out of you, young man, and I'll slap the hell out of you." Way to go, gramps. You just scared the hell out of him. I couldn't take this anymore. Somehow I was able to get off of that stinking couch and up the stairs. From the landing, they asked me what the heck I thought I was doing. I claimed that I really had to go to the bathroom. Surprisingly enough, they let me do that. I thought about escaping out the back window and wishing Cal the best of luck. What I really did was get our suitcases. I started packing like there was no tomorrow. I was going to get out of there. I was determined. While I was packing, I could hear my grandmother talking about me. "Why does she wear those ridiculous clothes? She looks like she's in the circus!" My brother tried to defend me by saying that I wear what I want to wear. I began packing loudly to muffle the voices from down below. I looked at myself in the mirror. Anyone could see that I had been crying, but that I had stopped because I was too scared to keep crying. I was done packing in about two minutes. I carried our stuff down the stairs and started packing it into the car. I didn't care what they said. To tell you the truth, I don't think they really wanted us to stay, anyway. Somehow the talking ended with Cal and my grandmother was just sitting there staring at him like he was evil. My grandfather was looking at him like he was ashamed that his own grandson could grow up to be so evil. Cal was looking at both of them like they were crazy and he was getting out of there if he had to kill them to do it. They didn't try to stop him, either. For some stupid reason I went over to where they were and hugged them both goodbye. My grandfather wouldn't accept a hug from Cal, though. When we got in the car, my grandmother came out and asked us not to come to her funeral. "Don't be nice to my remains if you're not going to be nice to my life," was what the woman said. Don't come to my funeral, stay out of my life, and have a Sprite. Crazy woman. Cal and I got on that road and were on the highway quicker than you can say Sprite. I was so tempted to pick up Cal's cellphone and dial 911. I would have done it, too, if Cal hadn't have stopped me. Jacky, the therapist, looked at me in amazement. "I don't know how you two managed to be so brave," she said. "You guys were the ones that won, because you got out of there." I smiled at her. Woah, I thought, that must be my first smile in a whole week. Cal and I were going to heal. And someday, I wouldn't be scared of them anymore. I looked out the window. Tonight, I thought, I am going to sleep and dream about my life with no more grandparents. I looked at Cal. He smiled at me. 


End file.
